What If?
by Dinny93
Summary: What if Rose hadn't left at the end of Journey's End? How would this have changed the fate of the 10th Doctor? AU from J/E through the specials. 10/Rose, hinted Jack/Donna. Title may be subject to change.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Okay, so this is my first attempt at a multi-chap fic and I'd love to know what you think. It's an AU version of Journey's End and will eventually continue from there, going through all the specials to The End Of Time, and has been floating around in my head for God knows how long. If anything doesn't make sense or seem to flow right, then please let me know! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, or any of it's associated characters... that knowledge never fails to pack a punch :(**

* * *

"Why don't you ask her yourself?" Donna said to him, indicating over his shoulder as a small smile began to spread across her face. The Doctor looked at her in disbelief, not quite daring to believe what she was hinting at. He turned around, trying to quash the tiny bubbles of hope in the pit of his stomach, trying to prepare for the disappointment he felt sure was inevitable. But it never came. Because there, standing at the opposite end of the street, was Rose. His brilliant, beautiful and utterly impossible Rose Marion Tyler.

For one seemingly endless moment, he stared at her, drinking in the sight of her after so long, convincing himself it truly was her, while simultaneously trying to figure out the answers to all of the How?s and Why?s filling his head. But then their eyes met across the empty street and she beamed at him in the way only she could, and he realised it no longer mattered, not any more. Against all odds, she'd found him, overcoming God knows how many obstacles to achieve it, and for that short amount of time, nothing else mattered. Not the Planets in the sky, nor the Daleks above their heads. The only thing that really did matter, that held any significance for him was that she was back and they could be together again, and as they stared at each other across the street, a smile broke across his face.

He didn't know exactly when he'd begun to move towards her, but without having to think about it, he started to run at almost exactly the same time she did, his eyes never leaving her face. He picked up speed as he ran and his grin widened exponentially with every stride that brought him closer to Rose. He was unaware of everything but her, paying no attention whatsoever to his surroundings, his focus entirely on her and the reunion he had thought was utterly impossible and would never - could never - happen. So he never saw the Dalek, not until it was too late. His heightened Time Lord senses, that normally would have given him ample warning, didn't register the danger lurking just out of sight; the first thing the Doctor knew of it was the falter in Rose's step and the look of pure horror that suddenly replaced the joyful smile on her face. Then, pain; unimaginable pain, and the cold, hard concrete of the ground coming up to meet him.

* * *

Rose felt time seemed to slow down when she saw the Dalek emerge from seemingly out of nowhere. All of a sudden, this moment she had been working towards for so long, which had seemed so perfect mere seconds ago, now felt like something out of one of the awful horror films her father loved to indulge in. The instant she had seen the Dalek, she had realised, in a moment of startling clarity, exactly what was going to happen. And that there was nothing whatsoever she could do to prevent it.

The Dalek shot the Doctor, and as the blue light engulfed his body, temporarily displaying his two hearts for all to see, Rose felt her heart begin to break and she stumbled slightly, though carried on running.

He screamed in agony and fell to the ground and a cold terror rushed over her. She couldn't lose him, not now. She'd only just found him again. Rose put on an extra burst of speed, discarding the heavy gun she had been carrying with her in order to reach him quicker.

Finally, she was at his side and she gathered his limp body in her arms, tears starting to pool in her eyes as she considered the unfairness of it all. She'd been dimly aware of the arrival of Jack, seemingly out of nowhere, and of his destruction of the Dalek that had ruined her reunion with the Doctor – an event she felt sure would have been worthy of the history books, had it been allowed to happen. Another part of her brain was vaguely aware of the presence of Donna hurrying to her side, but neither Jack or Donna truly registered in her mind. All she could see was his face, only they existed and all she wanted was for him to just open those gorgeous brown eyes and look at her...

"I've got you, I've missed you," Rose tried desperately to keep the note of panic out of her voice, but realised she was failing dismally. "Look, it's me..." she tried to coax a reaction out of him, remembering how he would always do anything for her. "Doctor..." she murmured gently. If he would just open his eyes and say something, _anything_...

"Rose..." he gasped out, eyes fluttering open and searching hers out. Despite the severity of the situation, Rose couldn't help the warm, tingly feeling that spread through her, or the butterflies that erupted in the pit of her stomach when he said her name. She let a soft sigh of relief escape her lips. He wasn't dead! "...long time, no see..." he continued breathlessly.

"Yeah. Been busy, you know..." Rose was unable to keep from smiling down at him, but her smile quickly disappeared when he groaned, his face twisted in pain and his body writhing in agony in her arms. "Don't die!" she begged as hysteria began to set in and tears started to roll down her face. "Oh my God, don't die!" He couldn't die, not now when they were finally together again. "Oh my God, don't die!" she repeated, clinging to him like a lifeline and with tears now streaming down her face.

Suddenly, Jack and Donna were there, on either side of her and the Doctor and after one horrified look at the Doctor, Jack started to take charge.

"Get him into the Tardis!" he barked "Quick!" Jack looked down at Rose, still clinging to the Doctor with tear tracks down her face and saw the heartbreak in her eyes. "Move!" he ordered again, slightly more gently this time, and between the three of them they carried the Doctor to the Tardis and manoeuvred him inside.

No sooner were they through the door, Jack rushed off, flicking switches and pulling levers round the console, leaving Donna and Rose to lower the Doctor to the floor. Rose grabbed his head before it slammed down and stroked his hair, her tears falling thick and fast over his suit. Donna raised her own tear stained face to look for Jack and asked him frantically,

"What do we do?! There must be some medicine or something!" her voice wobbled and Jack spared a glance in their direction.

"Just step back." he said hastily, turning back to the console. Donna, thought confused, made to do as he'd instructed, but Rose remained steadfastly where she was, still running her fingers through the Doctor's hair and smoothing out his suit, her eyes fixed on the Doctor's face. Jack whirled around again and took several steps in their direction. "Rose! Do as I say!" he said, his tone almost pleading, "He's dying and you know what happens next!" Donna's face snapped up to Jack's and she stood swiftly, her attention caught.

"What d'you mean?" The tremor and uncertainty in her voice was clear.

"But he can't," Rose sobbed, still not taking her eyes of the Doctor as he grimaced in pain, her words barely distinguishable through her tears, "I came all this way..."

"What d'you mean? What happens next?!" There was now panic in Donna's voice, mixed in with the frustration of not having her questions answered as she looked up at Jack. Jack stared down at the Doctor, the anguish evident in his face as he watched the Doctor slowly raise a hand as it began to glow with a golden light and choke out,

"It's starting..." Donna spun around to watch the Doctor as Jack had been doing and Rose let out an agonised whimper and leant further over the Doctor, clutching at her stomach while he groaned deeply and curled into a ball. Jack leapt forward as the golden light began to ensconce the Doctor and grabbed Rose round the waist, yanking her bodily out of the way.

"Here we go!" Jack exclaimed to no one in particular as he pulled Rose over to where he and Donna had been standing moments earlier. "Good luck Doctor!"

"Will somebody tell me what's going on?!"Donna's frustration got the better of her and despite the myriad of other emotions she was feeling, her annoyance was plainly audible. Rose glanced at her briefly from Jack's arms, before returning her gaze to the Doctor, now pulling himself up by the console.

"When he's dying, his body, it repairs itself, it changes," Rose stammered out in response to Donna's question. "But you can't!" she begged, her voice breaking slightly as she struggled against Jack's grip, fresh tears forming in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, it's too late," the Doctor wheezed out as his eyes sought out and locked onto Rose's. "I'm regenerating." and he gave himself up to the golden glow that swiftly submerged his body.

"No!!!" screamed Rose and Donna felt her heart breaking for the younger woman, her own tears threatening to overwhelm her. Rose wrestled fiercely against Jack's firm grasp and broke free. She rushed towards the Doctor, immune to Jack's warning shouts, and flung herself at the Doctor. Without stopping to think about what she was doing and ignoring the burning sensation that suddenly seemed to be consuming her body, she took his face in her hands and kissed him soundly on the lips.

* * *

What the hell was she doing?! Jack thought frantically as Rose escaped his grasp. He tried to lunge after her, but was prevented by Donna's sudden steely grip on his arm. All he could do was shout warnings after her and watch hopelessly as Rose threw herself at the Doctor. He cringed backwards and shut his eyes tightly, positive something awful was going to happen and not wanting to see the young woman he adored burned to a cinder from the inside out. By his side, Donna gasped and her hand fell from his arm.

"Jack! Look!" She said softly, tugging impatiently on his sleeve. Jack opened his eyes and they immediately widened at the sight before him. Rose's body was entwined with the Doctor's and they were kissing passionately, but that wasn't what shocked Jack. While the pair embraced, the golden glow that surrounded the Doctor, the energy that was being used in his regeneration, was slowly fading from about his slim figure and reappearing around Rose. It took Jack a few seconds to work out that, somehow, the energy was being transferred from one to the other, but before he could expand on his theory and work out exactly how it was happening, Rose and the Doctor broke apart. Rose was now the one emanating energy and although the Doctor was now swaying slightly and looking rather dazed, he was no longer regenerating.

Rose smiled tenderly up at the Doctor, who looked confusedly back down at her, then sagged back against the console and slid down it to the floor. Rose closed her eyes and exhaled, the golden mist fading into nothingness. She suddenly looked utterly exhausted and sank down onto the floor beside the Doctor. Jack and Donna rushed towards them, with shared expressions of concern etched onto their faces.

"What was that? What just happened, Doctor?" Donna asked, her voice a cocktail of emotions - primarily confusion, worry and mild terror. You and me both sweetheart, thought Jack wryly as he turned from the red-head beside him and looked to the Doctor for an answer. The Doctor, however, made no move to say anything and merely shook his head slightly and glanced at Rose. Jack noted the Doctor looked as confused as he felt and felt a twinge of irrational panic. Seriously, what _had _just happened?! Then Rose spoke up.

"I did it. I couldn't lose him again, alrigh'? I just couldn't." The defiance in her voice shone through the exhaustion and she spoke mainly to Jack, though she refused to meet his questioning stare.

"Rose, _what_ did you do? I'd started to regenerate already, nothing should have been able to stop that process once it had begun!" Rose's focus switched to the Doctor and her eyes snapped wide open.

"I couldn't lose you again..." she repeated softly, almost begging them to understand, "I heard this sort of roaring in my ears, then it changed to this really familiar music. The same music I heard that day on Satellite 5, with the Daleks..."

The Doctor opened his mouth to say something, a look of horror spreading across his face, but Donna hit him, quite hard by the look of it, and indicated he should let Rose finish. Jack refrained from grinning at her and instead returned his attention to Rose.

"...And all of a sudden, I realised I could do something about it. I thought, I'm Bad Wolf, and if I can turn an entire Dalek fleet to dust, then stopping you from regenerating should be no problem. So when I kissed you," her eyes sought out the Doctor's "I absorbed all that extra energy you didn't need after you'd repaired what the Dalek did when it shot you... Then I just... let all that energy out. It's in the Tardis now, I guess it'll float around for a bit and eventually fade away..." There was a stunned silence, as Rose's voice trailed off and the other three looked at her with varying degrees of shock. Her gaze never left the Doctor's face as she silently implored him to say something, but it was Donna who was the first to regain the use of her voice,

"Well, I don't know about anyone else, but personally, I think _someone_," she looked pointedly at the Doctor, "owes someone else a rather large thank you." Jack let out a short bark of laughter, which he quickly tried to disguise as a cough and looked at Donna with admiration. Man, he liked her! Once the Doctor had sorted out all of this trouble with the Daleks, he had to ask her out for a drink some time.

While this was going on in Jack's head, the Doctor's eyes flicked briefly from Rose's face to Donna's and a rather sheepish expression began to spread across his face, as he realised the truth of her words. He looked back at Rose, now blushing furiously at the point Donna had made, but still determinedly meeting his gaze.

"Rose..." he reached out a hand and gently cupped her face. "Thank you. Thank you very, very, very much. I mean, obviously you shouldn't have done it, you should have let me regenerate like I was meant to, and I don't even want to think about the danger you put yourself in, but -"

"Doctor! That is NOT what I meant when I said apologise!" Donna near screeched, watching in horror as Rose visibly deflated with each of the Doctor's cruel words. The poor girl now looked on the verge of tears and Jack was filled with annoyance at the Doctor. He really didn't know when to shut up, did he?

The Doctor lowered his hand slightly from Rose's cheek and pouted at Donna. "You didn't even let me let me finish! You had no idea where I was going with that, yet you just had to interrupt didn't you! You have no patience, just like your mother." He shook his head sadly at her and Donna looked like she was about to explode. Before she could open her mouth however and start an argument with the Doctor, which Jack guessed would end with the Doctor getting soundly slapped, Rose diverted the Doctor's attention back to her.

"Go on then Doctor. How were you gonna finish that sentence? 'Cos' I think we've left enough sentences unfinished, don't you?" she stared at him, the hurt from moments earlier gone from her face and replaced by curiosity at what was to follow. Jack also thought he saw a hint of nervousness, but she controlled it well. Seemingly without thinking, the Doctor reached out and took her hand.

"What I'd been going to say, before I was so rudely interrupted, was that despite that you shouldn't have done it, thank you so much for doing it anyway. Because I don't want to change, I love this body. I mean look at me, why would I want to change?" he flashed Rose a cheeky smile and she grinned right back at him, before he continued, "But most of all, if I had changed then I may not have still felt the way I do now about you, Rose Tyler. And that idea is what scares me the most about regenerating. So thank you Rose. I don't think you'll ever know how grateful I am." He gave her another small smile and Rose promptly threw herself at him, hugging him as tightly as she could, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes. It may not have been the long overdue snog, Jack thought to himself while smiling widely at the pair's reunion, but at least it was something. He caught Donna's eye and she smiled coyly at him, her apparent rage at the Doctor's earlier comments forgotten. She indicated the still hugging Doctor and Rose and said flirtatiously,

"You can hug me if you want." Jack laughed shortly, smiling down at her fondly. Donna, however, took this to mean he was laughing at her and her brow furrowed. "No, really. You can hug me." Jack looked her up and down briefly once more, then thought, To Hell with it. He swept her up in a tight hug, squeezing slightly before releasing her again. Over Rose's shoulder, the Doctor smirked knowingly at him.

* * *

The Doctor sat at the base of the console in the Tardis with Rose clasped to him, unable to stop smiling. She was back, against all the odds, yet she'd still managed it and then gone on to save him from another regeneration. Brilliant. Absolutely, undeniably brilliant, that's what she was. He heard her sniffle slightly and realised she was crying. Now why would she want to do a thing like that? Unthinkingly, he pressed a kiss to the top of her head and was pleased to feel her smile into his shoulder, so he did it again.

Across from them he could see Donna switching into flirt-mode with Jack and as he watched, Jack picked her up in a potentially bone-crushing hug. His smile widened and when Jack met his stare, seconds later, the Doctor flashed a wicked grin at him. The chemistry between the pair was tangible from where he was sitting, and the Doctor began making bets with himself about how long it would take them to do anything about it. He didn't realise that this was exactly how Jack felt about him and Rose and so didn't recognize his own hypocrisy.

It was then that the lights went out and everything began shutting down. The Doctor was jerked fiercely back to reality, that the Daleks were attacking and roaming free on the streets of Earth, while their ships hovered in the sky amongst twenty-six other planets. Immersed in his reunion with Rose, he had forgotten about the dangers surrounding them. And now the Tardis was without power.

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**A/N: Umm... any thoughts? Comments much appreciated!**

**Dinny  
****xxxx**


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Hey! Thank you so much for all your lovely reviews, I was completely overwhelmed =D Sorry it has taken me so long to churn out another chapter, but I was in France and then my aunt died... =S

Anyway, I really hope this lives up to your expectations =)

Disclaimer: Doctor Who and all its affiliates does not belong to me.

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As the Tardis was submerged in darkness, the laughter quickly vanished. Rose and the Doctor broke apart and hastily scrambled to their feet, then the Doctor dashed off round the console, frantically trying to coax some sort of a reaction from the Tardis monitors, flicking switches, pushing buttons and pulling levers. After a moments pause, the others joined him.

"Doctor, what's wrong, what happening?" Donna asked, sharing a nervous glance with Rose across the console.

"They've got us! Power's gone! Some kind of chronon-loop!" The Tardis lurched unexpectedly and they all stumbled forcefully to one side. The Doctor was the first to recover, and automatically reached for Rose's hand to steady her.

"We're moving!" she exclaimed, looking at him with shock in her eyes, "Where are they taking us?" It was Jack who answered.

"There's a massive Dalek ship at the centre of the planets, they're calling it the Crucible," he looked grimly around at them, eyes finally locking with the Doctor's, "Guess that's our destination."

*

The Doctor walked down the ramp to the doors, knowing full well that outside they would be surrounded by Daleks, yet also knowing they had no other choice. Rose and Captain Jack followed close behind, heads held high. Donna made to follow, but as she got to the door she stopped, glazing over once again. The chants of "Daleks reign supreme", clearly audible with the open doors, seemed to fade to background noise and once more, the sound of a heartbeat filled her head. She turned and stared back at the console, entranced. Vaguely, she could hear the Doctor calling for her, but it took a while to register. She turned back to the door, confusion threatening to overwhelm her, when all of a sudden the door slammed shut.

Donna snapped out of her trancelike state and rushed the few steps towards the door, yanking at it furiously.

"Doctor?! What have you done?!" On the other side of the door, she could just hear him denying having done anything. "Oi! I'm not staying behind!" she screeched, anger leeching through into her voice. Stupid man! She zones out for a few moments and he locks her in the Tardis for not being quick enough through the doors! How dare he!?!

But as she pressed her ear to the door in an attempt to hear what was happening on the other side, she heard him, with an unmistakable note of panic in his voice, asking the Daleks what they'd done. Why would he blame them if he'd been the one to close the doors?

"Doctor! What's going on?" Donna felt fear creeping up on her as she tried desperately to listen to the conversation going on outside, but it was difficult. The Doctor's voice suddenly rose even higher and it was impossible to miss the begging and the sheer horror contained in it. What was happening out there? Donna wondered, and not for the first time. Then without warning, the Tardis was falling - and falling fast.

"DOCTOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Donna screamed, clinging on to the railings for dear life. Oh dear God, what was happening?!? What had they done to the Tardis to make it plummet the way it seemed to be doing?? She didn't want to die!!!!

Donna was so caught up in her panic that she didn't notice, at least not immediately, as the golden glow that had surrounded the Doctor, followed by Rose not so long ago, began to settle around her. The energy Rose had taken from the Doctor, then let out into the Tardis was gathering around her and enshrouding her protectively – its purpose was to create and preserve life and it would not let Donna Noble die.

The Tardis gave another great lurch that succeeded in shaking Donna free of the railings she'd been holding on to so tightly and sent her crashing across the control room. She collided, head first with the hand in a jar the Doctor kept at the foot of the console and for a moment time seemed to slow down. The swirling golden mist enveloped her and the hand, then the heartbeat that had filled Donna's head before returned with a vengeance. She gasped, then screamed with the agony of it. Her head felt like it was about to explode and her body was on fire, a burning out of control. Then, as suddenly as the pain had started, it stopped and she could think again.

Donna blinked and looked around at her surroundings. The Tardis was still in apparent free-fall, with explosions and small fires all around her, and the heat was almost overpowering. But it still all seemed to be moving much slower, as if someone had pressed the slow-motion button on her grandad's VCR. Her eyes flickered over the the console and to her amazement, Donna saw that she knew what it all did and understood how it all worked. She knew how to fly the Tardis... Her eyes widened in shock at this realisation, which was swiftly followed by another – that she could stop it from falling, thereby saving both herself and possibly everyone else in the long run!

Unwilling to waste another milli-second, Donna scrambled shakily to her feet, then dashed over to the console and began flipping switches and pushing buttons at a rate to rival the Doctor's. And back up in vaults of the Crucible, as Jack, Rose, the Doctor and the Daleks watched on a screen, the Tardis dematerialised, disappearing seemingly into the molten core of the Crucible.

*

As they stared up at the screen, Rose reached out and squeezed the Doctor's hand, tears prickling in her eyes as the Tardis vanished from sight. The heartbreak in his face was almost too much for her to bear. The Tardis had been his home for so long, more than just his ship but his friend, a part of him.

How would he cope without her?

And what about Donna?

Brilliant, brave Donna who always had so much life in her, so much potential... Could she really be dead? Rose's breath hitched in her throat at this thought and she fought to keep the tears at bay. She had to be strong for the Doctor, because he would without a doubt be blaming himself for Donna's fate.

Dimly, Rose heard the Supreme Dalek say something about emotions and saw the Doctor mumble something in response. She bit her lower lip and squeezed his hand even tighter in her own.

*

It was only when the Tardis was safe, floating unnoticed in space and invisible to any prying eyes, that Donna tore herself away from the console. She stumbled away from it, eyes wide with panic and fear. How had she known to do any of that??? The last time the Doctor had tried to teach her the basics of piloting the Tardis, they had ended up on the opposite side of the universe and 752 years ahead of the intended destination. When she had attempted to blame his teaching techniques, he'd told her she was all gob and maybe if she actually used her ears for once she would learn something. They hadn't been on speaking terms for the rest of the day, which had made escaping from the mess they'd landed in just that bit harder. After that, no attempt had been made by either to continue with the lessons.

So how had she not only managed to save the Tardis from destruction in the heart of the Crucible, but then fly it somewhere it wouldn't be noticed and put the shields back up? It had all seemed perfectly normal while she'd been in the middle of performing the actions, an instinct she'd given herself over to entirely. But it _wasn't _an instinct she had, had ever shown any inclination of possessing. It was something she expected of the Doctor -

Donna gasped sharply as another rush of sudden understanding swept over her, words she previously never even knew existed proffering themselves as part of the explanation. The Doctor... The extra energy Rose had unleashed inside the Tardis... That hand, _his _hand, colliding with his hand, then agony of unspeakable proportions. Oh dear God! She had obviously absorbed some of the Doctor's DNA or something like that and now she was thinking like him, maybe even turning into him. Maybe she was going develop a liking for suits and become obsessed with bananas... Or even worse, start styling her hair upwards...

Urgh! Donna shuddered violently at the thought. No, she decided then and there she was _not _going to turn into another skinny boy in a suit, one was way more than enough as it was. And as for thinking like the Doctor, well it couldn't be all bad being such a know-it-all. Having a share of his intelligence had already saved both her and the Tardis within the last hour. Who knew what she could do with all this new-found brain power if she put it to good use... Now if only she knew how

"Right," she said out loud to nobody in particular, looking around the dimly lit Tardis. "Ok. This is completely bonkers, but there has to be something I can do." And with that, Donna took a calming breath and stepped back up to the console.

*

The Doctor felt despair wash over him and pain wrecked through his body as he finally heard Dalek Caan's prophecy and was forced to acknowledge the truth of Davros's words. Yes. He took ordinary people and turned them into soldiers, killers, in his name. They may have been only trying to help, as he weakly tried to point out to Davros, but it didn't change that before she met him, Martha would never have even considered setting off a chain of nuclear war heads and ripping the planet to shreds.

Jack would have run in the opposite direction of situations such as these without feeling even a morsel of guilt.

Even Rose, his pure, young, _innocent_ Rose had been corrupted by his presence in her life and had done God knows what in his name. She had returned to him carrying a gigantic gun, and acceptable though it may have been given the circumstances, it was still not something the nineteen year old shop girl he first met would ever have imagined doing. She had been toughened, as had the others, to life with him, her innocence lost somewhere along the way. Now, when Martha and Jack had announced their respective plans, where Rose would once have been horrified she was instead impressed. That knowledge was perhaps the most painful to bear. Davros was right. What did it make him indeed.

The Doctor stared at the ground, unwilling to meet the desperate stares of Jack, Martha, Sarah-Jane, Mickey and Jackie as they waited for him to deny it, but then slowly realised the truth of it. He couldn't bring himself to look at Rose either, knowing full well that the love shining in her eyes for him would be undiminished and if he were to meet her gaze, then it would be filled merely with concern for him. He didn't deserve that.

Throughout all the Doctor's inner turmoil, still Davros continued speaking, his harsh voice grating, the pleasure he gained from tormenting the Doctor so evident.

"Already I have seen them sacrifice today, for their _beloved _Doctor. The Earth woman who fell, opening the Subwave Network -"

That was news to the Doctor. He jerked his head up and stared at Davros.

"Who was that?" His voice sounded hollow and empty. Did he really want to know who else's death he was responsible for?

"Harriet Jones," Rose beat Davros to the punch. She took advantage of the fact he was looking at her to give him a small, sad smile. "She gave her life to get you here." The Doctor stared at her for a moment as her words sunk in. Harriet Jones... He destroyed her career, yet she still died for him. By Rassilon that hurt. Poor Harriet. Poor, poor Harriet.

"How many more?" Davros rasped "Just think. How many have died in your name?"

Before he could stop himself, the Doctor's mind was filled with images of all the people he'd lost over the centuries. All those faces... All those lives gone in the blink of an eye, because of him. Then all the more recent ones began to flash through his mind at a colossal rate; Jabe, the Controller, Lynda, Sir Robert, Mrs Moore, Mr Skinner, Bridget, Ursula, the Face of Boe, Chantho, Astrid, Luke, Jenny - Jenny who was meant to be his second chance at being a father, Jenny who died in his arms - River Song, the hostess whose name he never even knew... and finally Donna. His best friend, gone, because of him. Tears began to prickle at his eyelids for all those lost lives.

Davros sat, surveying the Doctor, his satisfaction almost palpable, then opened his mouth and continued to speak

"The Doctor. The man who keeps running, never looking back because he dares not, out of shame. This is my final victory Doctor. I have shown you yourself."

"ENOUGH!!!" The voice of the Supreme Dalek echoed throughout the vaults and all of a sudden transmat beams brought Martha, Jack, Sarah-Jane, Jackie and Mickey tumbling to the floor of the vault, all looking rather shocked and confused. The Doctor leapt into action, momentarily forgetting about the forcefield that surrounded him, frantic to keep his friends alive.

"Don't move, all of you, stay still!!!"

"Guard them!" Davros ordered and three more Daleks appeared, seemingly from nowhere, poised to shoot. "On your knees! Surrender!!!" Davros' voice rose in pitch as he barked more orders. The Doctor didn't say anything more, but inside he was begging, pleading, for nothing to happen to his friends. _Let them be, Davros, please. Just let them be. There have been enough deaths already. Please. _

Across the room he noticed Rose having a muttered conversation with her mother out of the corner of his eye. Jackie, who had just had a baby. She may not have been his favourite person in the universe, but there was no way he wanted her to die, not to mention Rose would never forgive him if she did. The Doctor was snapped out of his internal suffering however, when Davros began to speak again, satisfaction dripping from every syllable.

"And the final prophecy is in place. The Doctor and his Children, all gathered as witnesses. Supreme Dalek! The time has come!" Davros' voice sped up, rasping and grating as his excitment reached fever pitch.

"Now, detonate the Reality Bomb!!!" Davros shrieked and the Doctor looked on in horror.

"You can't Davros! Just listen to me! Just stop!" he yelled, desperation mingled with fear filled his voice, and spittle flew everywhere. Davros let forth a crazed laugh, now certain of his imminent success.

"Nothing can stop me now! Nothing! And no one!!!" Davros continued with his maniacal shrieks of laughter and the Doctor looked frantically about the room. Was this really how it was going to end?! Trapped in a vault with Davros and Dalek Caan, the shame of the Dalek war fleet?! He'd always figured when his time came it would be slightly more impressive to be quite honest. His eyes flickered about the room resting briefly on all those in it, yet more people about to die in his name, before coming to a halt on Rose. He'd never gotten the chance to talk to her about that kiss either. A twinge of disappointment at this made itself known through the waves of panic and shame.

Then to his utmost disbelief, he heard the whirring of what sounded a lot like the Tardis engines. The Doctor spun around, eager to see if his ears were to be believed, yet still doubtful because of the sheer impossibility of it - how on Earth could the Tardis be materialising when he saw it incinerated...?

The rest of the faces in the room, with the exception of Davros, had lit up in hopeful anticipation. Then there it was, gradually materialising at the opposite end of the room.

The Tardis had, by all appearances, arrived to save the day.

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**A/N: Love to know what you thought =) The bits I've left out were left out because they didn't deviate from what we see in the episode, so I saw no point in including them.**

**Dinny  
xxxxx **


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Umm... Sorry? I'm not even going attempt to make excuses for myself - I'm a horrible updater and I wouldn't be at all surprised if no one was reading this any more. I am really, _really _sorry though!**

**Disclaimer: Doctor Who does in no way shape or form belong to me. Shame that.**

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Questions filled the Doctor's mind and confusion threatened to overwhelm him as he watched the steadily materialising Tardis, each passing moment bringing it more solidly into being. He didn't like not understanding things and this was a prime example of things he didn't like to not understand. However, the Doctor's confusion increased tenfold when the Tardis doors swung open. Standing in the doorway and looking spectacularly annoyed, was one Donna Noble.

"Donna?" he exclaimed, utterly gobsmacked. Rose and Jack caught each others eye and grinned widely, hope colouring their features and belying the shock of the Tardis's initial appearance.

"I am _not _happy with you, Spaceman!" Donna announced, glaring at the Doctor as she stepped out of the Tardis and slammed the door closed behind her. The Doctor winced. "Two minutes! I hesitate for two measly minutes, and you lock me in the bleedin' Tardis!" she took a step towards the Doctor, glaring daggers at him, yet without sparing the surrounding Daleks so much as a glance.

"What?" The Doctor's jaw literally dropped. Of all the things Donna could have chosen to be annoyed with him about, she chose that - something that wasn't even his fault. The injustice of it rankled mildly with the Doctor, but he was very much aware of more pressing matters. The sudden materialisation of the Tardis and even more sudden appearance of Donna had shocked Davros into silence and scattered his usually collected thoughts. However, Davros was a genius, albeit an evil one, and the Doctor knew without a shadow of a doubt that they had only a limited amount of time – mere seconds, really – before Davros once again regained control of the situation and ordered the surrounding Daleks to attack Donna. Infact, it was unbelievably lucky they hadn't attacked already. If Donna had anything in mind to help the situation, then the Doctor just hoped she would do it quickly instead of wasting precious time yelling at him. He ignored the snide voice in the back of his mind saying that really he just wanted something to detract her attention from him and stop her from continuing to yell at him. In the background, Dalek Caan giggled maniacally.

"I mean, what on Earth gives you the right to think you can do stuff like that without my say so, eh Doctor?" she continued, her eyes blazing with anger and still seemingly oblivious to the imminent danger posed by their surroundings. "You may think your the bees' bloody knees sunshine, but let me tell you, that is not the case! I may not have your amazing intelligence, or two hearts -" Here her eyes momentarily flashed with something that was gone before he had time to identify it, gone so quickly the Doctor wasn't sure if he'd imagined it. "- or a box that travels through time and space, but that doesn't mean you can make my decisions for me. Just 'cos' I'm human, it doesn't mean you control me. If I'd wanted to stay in the Tardis, I'd have told you so, and newsflash, Doctor, I do not remember the words "Leave me in the Tardis while I swan off to bargain for the fate of the universe" passing my lips!" Donna paused to regain her breath, finally halting her advance towards the Doctor right beside the central Dalek control station.

Davros finally seemed to regain his senses. A look of pure disdain mixed with malice and a sadistic enthusiasm for what he was planning, spread across his scarred, wrinkled features as he stared at Donna.

"Young lady, touching though that _heartfelt_ speech was, it amuses me that for all the Doctor's protestations of the brilliance of humanity, when presented with an opportunity to have attempted a counter-attack, you throw away your only advantage for petty emotion." Davros turned abruptly away from Donna, dismissing her as unimportant and visibly losing interest. He spun around and manouvered himself further towards the Doctor, a twisted fascimile of a smile stretching across his face as he prepared himself to gloat some more at the expense of his oldest enemy.

A flick of his wrist in the direction of the Tardis and four of the silently watching Daleks assigned to his control instantly glided towards the Tardis, surrounding it. However miraculous its appearance may have been, the Tardis was no longer a possible source of assistance. Moving yet closer to the Doctor, until they were separated only by the forcefield holding the Doctor captive, Davros began once more to speak.

"You may take this as my final proof, Doctor, that emotion is but an unecessary hinderance. We are truly stronger without it," he paused, drawing in a rattling breath and exhaling slowly. He seemed to emanate smugness and superiority which, the Doctor thought sourly, was understandable, given he was finally going to succeed in the destruction of the universe and there was nothing he, the Doctor, could do about it. "And I was wrong about your warriors," Davros was speaking again "They are _pathetic_." The last word was spat out in a tone of such disgust, a nerve twitched in the Doctor's eyelid. How dare Davros!

He felt the fury building within him, all the fearsome anger of the Oncoming Storm beginning to brew and bubble away inside him. It mingled with the despair and the guilt and the anguish he had been struggling with since being brought aboard the Crucible and made for a dangerously volatile cocktail of emotions.

On the other side of the room, trapped in a holding cell, Rose instantly recognized the look on his face as one meaning "No mercy" and couldn't help the shudder that ran through her. Although it had never been directed at her, Rose was no stranger to the terrible, ancient ire of the Time Lord and knew it was not something to be joked about; when the Doctor got that look in his eye there was little that could be done to contain his rage. Heads rolled and lives were ended. She doubted even the holding cells keeping them both captive at that point would be able to withold it for long.

Around them, the metallic voice of the Supreme Dalek echoed, "Detonation in twenty rells!" and began to countdown. Davros gave a twisted smirk and spun towards the front of the room, flicking a switch on his controlpad as he did so, and causing a large screen to blink into life.

"Stand witness, Time Lord. Stand witness, humans. Your stratagies have failed. Your weapons are useless. And the end of the universe has come!" All eyes in the room zeroed in on the scene unfolding on the screen before them, watching fixedly with varying degrees of horror and understanding as the planets grouped around the Crucible began to realign themselves. The Doctor tore his gaze from the sight before them, and his eyes began to roam the vault at high speed, in a manner that could almost be described as frantic, searching for something, _anything_ that could change their fate. They landed on Donna and widened exponentially. She was still standing at the main control panel and, while the rest of the room focused entirely on the universe's impending doom, she was silently tapping away with a look on her face the Doctor could only describe as smug. She glanced upwards and caught his stunned stare. Smirking slightly, Donna flashed him a wink and indicated that he should close his mouth. The Doctor hadn't realised it was open. Closing it hurriedly, he returned his gaze to screen above, not wanting to draw Davros' attention to Donna, and was just in time to hear the final ten of the Supreme Dalek's countdown to the launch of the Reality Bomb.

All around him, his friends braced themselves for the end. Martha shrank back into herself, only to have Mickey wrap an arm around her shoulders, the other one being firmly around Jackie. Sarah-Jane screwed up her face, closing her eyes as tightly as possible, no doubt summoning images of her son to mind, while Jack stood up a little straighter, his entire body tensing.

Rose's hand nearest to the Doctor automatically reached out towards him, only to be stopped by the barrier of the holding cell around her. A look of pain crossed her face as she realised they were to be denied even the basic comfort of holding each others hands during the End of The Universe. It hurt that she had come so far and even stopped him from regenerating again in order to be with him, yet they had failed at the last hurdle, and so the many questions of "What if?" floating about in her mind were to forever go unanswered. A tiny, selfish part of her head resented the fact that they were to die without her ever hearing from the Doctor's own lips how he truly felt about her. She rejected it thoroughly however as soon as the Doctor caught her eye. His gaze captured her own and told her everything she needed to know in a split second. A smile so small it may never have happened passed between them, but the Doctor was reassured. She knew. Of course she knew. How could she not?

Whatever it was Donna had up her sleeve and however much the Doctor trusted her, there was still a part of him that feared the worst and the idea of Rose Tyler dying and not knowing how he felt for her was one he couldn't stand. If – when, he tried to tell himself – they did escape from this alive, he would have to make sure he did actually tell her this time. He never wanted her to be able to doubt it, never again wanted to be in the position he was in that day on Bad Wolf Bay when the time ran out and the moment was snatched away from them.

"... Three. Two. One." Just as the Supreme Dalek ended its ominous countdown, the screen suddenly blinkered out of exsistence and a shrill, squalling alarm began reverberating throughout the Crucible. All heads spun to face the Doctor, shock and confusion spreading rapidly across each face in equal measures, only for him to shake his head slightly and nod in Donna's direction. A similar expression of bewildered disconcertion, that had more to do with the fact he had no idea how _Donna_ had managed to do whatever it was she had done, than with what had actually happened, settled across his features. The attention instantly transferred from the Doctor to Donna the moment she opened her mouth, seemingly having grown bored of playing the silent hero.

"Aaaaaaand, closing all Z-neutrino relay loops using an internalised synchronous back-feed reversal loop - oh yes, that button there!" She slammed down on it, grinning wildly around the vault. Davros stared at her disbelievingly, his gnarled old features twisting into a look of complete horror and simultaneous fury. Around them, the walls of the vault shook as the Supreme Dalek's screams of "Explain! Explain! Explain!" rattled through the Crucible, causing Davros to visibly wince.

Finally free to speak, the words "But how? Donna, you can't even change a plug!" burst forth from the Doctor's lips, his brow furrowing in confusion.

"You wanna bet, Time Boy?" Donna beamed at him, barely refraining from bursting out laughing there and then. Sarah-Jane caught Rose's eye at this and neither could help the laughter of pure relief that escaped them. Davros began to wheel towards Donna, already reaching out an unsteady arm to electrify her.

"You'll suffer for this!" he rasped out, but Donna merely cocked her head to the side and pouted in a mocking manner, before slamming down on another button infront of her. Instead of reaching out and encasing her, the forks of blue electricity were directed backwardsback into Davros. He screamed, partly in agony, but also in fury at the indignity of having his own weapon reversed upon himself. Donna looked at him unconcernedly, then exclaimed with the air of someone who had just figured out the answer to a complex problem that they actually didn't care for in the least,

"Ohhh. Bio-electric dampening field with a retrogressive arc inversion." She arched an eyebrow, as if to say "Well, that was interesting I guess, but what can I do now?" and Jack bit back a loud bark of a laugh.

"Exterminate her!"screeched Davros at the three Daleks nearest to him. They swiveled to face Donna and lurched towards her, guns poised, and the chilling cry of "Exterminate!" filled the vault. The watching faces of the Doctor, Rose, Jack, Martha, Mickey, Sarah-Jane and Jackie all contorted into identical masks of pure horror. Jack and Mickey reached automatically for their guns, only to be reminded after they'd pulled their respective triggers that guns didn't work aboard the Crucible.

However, it seemed none of them need have worried; with barely a glance at the controls infront of her, Donna began flipping switches and keying in codes at a pace that would rival the Doctors, confidence radiating from her. Her eyes briefly roamed across the four Daleks that were rapidly closing in around her, yet instead of looking even mildly concerned, she smirked at them smugly, pressed down on one final button, then leant back slightly, as though to survey her handiwork. The Daleks continued to advance, surrounding her entirely. The rest of the room waited with bated breath, thinking all was surely lost, as the Daleks raised their weapons, not even bothering to precede their attack with their infamous war-cry, and...

Nothing.

Their guns were useless.

In another situation, it might have been quite comical as the Daleks were clearly in a state of disbelief. Their eyestalks moved between Donna and their usually-deadly-but-now-quite-harmless blasters, and if you didn't know they'd had all emotions bar hate removed long ago, you'd be certain that the creatures residing within the metal casings were utterly confused. One Dalek spun to face Davros, emitting a plaintive,

"Weapons non-functional!" but before Davros could even begin to formulate a reply, Donna beat him to it.

"What? Macrotransmission of a K-filter wavelength, blocking Dalek weaponary in a self-replicating energy blindfold matrix!" The words tumbled out of her mouth in a garbled rush and jaws around the vault dropped just that bit further.

The Doctor stared at her, his brain boggling as he tried to comprehend the changes in Donna – he'd always known she was brilliant, but this level of knowledge... He could think of no explanation, only that she'd been normal (for Donna at any rate) when she'd been left in the Tardis earlier on – had it really only been a couple of hours? It felt like so much longer – and now she was so much more. All of a sudden, she knew things she shouldn't, things only he knew now the Time Lords were no more...

The knowledge of a Time Lord.

The penny dropped.

She was – somehow – part Time Lord.

Barely 1.7 seconds had passed while the Doctor's mind had been whirring at impossible speeds to come to this realisation. When he tuned back into his surroundings, no one had even noticed his focus had temporarily drifted. Instantly, his attention was once more on Donna.

"How? Donna, you're - you're - you're part Time Lord!" He gaped at her for a moment, but Donna's beam just widened and no answers seemed forthcoming until -

"Some form of biological metacrisis I'd bet," she winked cheekily at him, then flipped another couple of levers. "I'll explain the details later. Holding cells deactivated! And seal the vault!"

Even after his cell went down, the Doctor still just stood and stared at Donna, questions still consuming his mind and multiplying with every further milli-second that passed. Having worked out that she was somehow part Time Lord in no way satisfied his thirst for knowledge; indeed all it had done was increase his curiosity tenfold as he still had no idea how it had come to be. He was jerked out of it by Donna snapping over at him from her place behind the control panel,

"Well don't just stand there looking skinny in that suit Doctor! Get to work!"

It seemed this was the prompt Davros needed to jerk him out of his stupor; for the second time that day, Davros had been stunned into silent inaction by the doings of one insignificant human and this infuriated him.

"Stop them!" he screeched, pointing his one, metallic arm at Donna, as the Doctor bolted past him to her side. "Get them away from the controls!"

The Daleks began to advance on them again, seemingly having forgotten the uselessness of their weapons, but Donna merely grinned at Davros before reaching for a dial lower down –

"Aaaaaaannnndd _spin_!"

The advancing Daleks began to do just that, halted in their tracks, going round and round and round. Jack's eyes widened as he watched the terrifying creatures that had ended his life on so many occasions reduced to a joke, their pleas for help the cherry on the proverbial cake and let out a loud, barking laugh. Beside him, Martha just stared hardly able to believe what she was seeing before she too let out a short laugh of relief. On his other side, Jackie clutched at Rose's hand, while Rose herself beamed proudly at Donna.

Shooting them a quick glance, Donna grinned at them. "And the other way!" She abruptly spun the dial in the opposite direction, causing the Daleks to follow suit. Their screams echoed off the walls of the vault.

Now facing her on the other side of the master control panel, the Doctor was unable to stop the question that happened to be at the forefront of his mind at that particular instant bursting forth from his lips. Unfortunately for him, that question was the singularly unimpressive "What's that?" and didn't nearly express the magnitude of questions he had buzzing about in his vast mind. Grimacing at that realisation, the Doctor tried again, only to come out with the only marginally better "What did you do?" Donna stifled a snigger and instead looked at him fondly. Briefly she considered waiting to see what other questions would come spewing from his mouth before he ordered his thoughts enough to be able to ask the questions he deemed worthy of being asked. However, knowing the Doctor as well as she did, Donna swiftly thought better of it and launched into her own explanation.

"I used the biofeedback shielding to exacerbate the Dalekenium interface, thus incalculating a trip-stitch-circuit-breaker in the psycho-kinetic threshold manipulator!"

Jack had come to stand next to the Doctor and it was he who replied, "But that's brilliant! Revolutionary even."

"Why did you never think of that?" said Rose's voice in the Doctor's ear as she too came and stood by the console and he could hear the teasing, but still –

"I don't understand! Donna, how is it _possible_ for you to be part Time Lord?"

Donna sighed dramatically, "Honestly," she said to Rose, "Dunno how you put with him! No patience whatsoever!" Jack snorted.

"You can say that again."

The Doctor ignored Jack's snide remark, focusing entirely on Donna. She seemed to soften slightly under his intent gaze, the manic look fading from her face and replaced by one of understanding. Yes, she knew the Doctor well. Perhaps not as well as Rose did, she thought with a glance at the younger woman who's eyes were fixed on the man she'd traversed universes for, a pucker creasing her otherwise smooth forehead, but still well enough to know how little he liked being left in the dark. And that he seemed to be in a foul mood, Donna added as an afterthought. Taking another deep breath, Donna began to try and explain as quickly as she could; although it may not have appeared so earlier, Donna was very much aware of the fact that they were, for all intents and purposes, locked in the lair of an insane evil genius, on board a massive Dalek ship.

"Like I said earlier, some sort of biological metacrisis," she held up a finger to shush the Doctor as he opened his mouth to interrupt and obligingly, he shut it again. "After you locked me in the Tardis -" again the Doctor opened his mouth, this time to protest, but this time Rose slapped him lightly on his chest and he stopped. "- it began to fall. Really fall, plummeting like, and I thought I was gonna die. But there was this golden light and it surrounded me – like the stuff you took out of him earlier," Donna nodded at Rose, who exhanged meaningful glances with Jack and the Doctor, before Donna continued. "Then because the Tardis was falling, I'd been holding onto the railings. I let go and went crashing into that old hand of yours you keep by the console Doctor." Donna's voice shrank to barely above a whisper. "It felt like I was burning, like my mind was on fire. Then it stopped, as suddenly as it started, and I could think again and once I started thinking and stopped panicking, I realised I knew what to do to stop it falling. And here I am."

Donna met the Doctor's stare head-on, returning it with a look he (correctly) interpreted as one to mean "Are-you-happy-now?". He nodded incrementally, satisfied now he understood a little better. Donna forced the smile that had dropped during her brief story back onto her face and surveyed those surrounding her.

"See, this dumbo's just a Time Lord," she continued with renewed vigour, ignoring the Doctor's offended pout, "He lacks that gut-instinct that comes hand in hand with being human, with Planet Earth. Cos of that, I can dream up things you wouldn't think of in a billion years! Oh, the Universe has been waiting for me!"

The Doctor nodded again and murmured "The Doctor-Donna. Just like the Ood said." but Donna showed no sign of having heard him. Instead, she looked again from face to face, observing the light in each of them and couldn't help but smile herself.

"Let's send that trip-stitch all over the ship!" She exclaimed loudly, her fingers hovering above the control panel, poised for action, but before she started, she quirked an eyebrow in Davros's direction and called over to the furious android, "Did I ever mention? Best temp in Chiswick. One hundred words per minute!" she beamed at him, then launched herself at the vast aray of buttons, levers and dials before her. The Doctor hesitated for barely a fraction of a second before doing the same.

On the other side of the vault from beside Dalek Caan's podium, Davros let out an infuriated howl as he watched them pull apart all of his carefully constructed plans, and was unable to do anything to stop it, separated as they now were by numerous Daleks revolving on the spot. From the upper levels of the Crucible, cries of hundreds of Daleks began to rebound off walls and echo down as they too began to spin uncontrollably. Above it all, the voice of the Supreme Dalek could be heard demanding "Explain! Explain! Explain!"

Jack jolted into action, seeing there was little for him to do at the control panel and instead dashing off towards the Tardis, great coat whirling behind him, and wrenching open the door Donna had left unlocked. He disappeared inside, while Rose turned her attention to Donna and the Doctor, who were all seriousness now, pushing buttons at an alarming rate, yet still entirely in sync.

"We've still got twenty-seven planets to send home, Doctor." He spared Rose a quick glance, grinning widely at her.

"I know. Donna?"

Donna's answer was a knowing smirk and –

"Activate the Magnatron!" she cried with a barely surpressed snicker. The Doctor beamed at her and together they slammed down on a set of buttons.

Davros suddenly surged forwards, somehow repelling the spinning Daleks that were previously blocking his path, similar to like poles on a pair magnets.

"Stop this at once!" he ordered, grating metallic voice containing a hint of hysteria. He powered towards the Doctor and Donna, electricity already crackling from his extended fingertips, but before he had a chance to expell that electricity into his intended targets, Jack came charging out of the Tardis carrying two gigantic guns. He tossed one to Mickey, who grabbed it out of the air with ease, seemingly unbothered by its weight, ducked under a jerkily revolving Dalek and came up with it pointed right at Davros's withered skull. He smirked at the horror on Davros's face, enjoying the complete role-reversal and power that came with knowing he was the one holding the gun.

"Just you stay where you are, mister." he said, somewhat unnecessarily. Jack, meanwhile, hastily kicked a Dalek that was blocking his path out of the way, sending it spinning down a winding corridor, a look of pure glee on his face as he yelled at it to "Get outta the way!". Seeing the ease with which he did this, Sarah-Jane and Martha both charged at the Daleks nearest to them, causing them to go whirling off in opposite directions, deep into the depths of the Crucible, far out of the way, and forcing Jackie to execute a series of elaborate hops and twirls in order to get out of their way in time.

Rose couldn't help but laugh out loud at the look on her mother's face, having been distracted by the others in the room when she realised there was little she could do to assist the Doctor and Donna in their frantic and increasingly random pressing of buttons. Seeing her daughter laughing at her, Jackie folded her arms like a sulky child and threw her eldest child a filthy look, before retreating to the edges of the vault, hoping to be out of the way of any more spinning Daleks.

"Ready?" Donna asked and Rose's head snapped back round to the console. She didn't expect them to need her during this crucial point – the techy stuff at the end was always the Doctor's area of expertise, and despite having gained a significant number of qualifications, including her A-levels and a university degree during their prolonged separation, the technical aspects of saving the universe were still not exactly her strong suit. However, it seemed that even the brilliant Doctor-Donna didn't have enough hands to complete the manoeuvre necessary to send the twenty-seven planets home. Donna grinned at Rose and nodded encouragingly, her own hands already on the set of levers she needed to pull. Rose barely hesitated a second before giving one of her trademark full-face smiles and dashing past the Doctor to the side of the control panel where that final lever resided. Once Rose was in place, Donna gave them both a swift look, took a deep breath and exclaimed jubilantly,

"And REVERSE!" Together, the Doctor, Rose and Donna pulled their respective levers as far out as they would go and though they couldn't see the results, they knew instinctively that, one-by-one, the twenty-seven planets were returning to their rightful places in the sky.

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**A/N: Again, I am unbelievably sorry! However I'm not going to make any promises for quick updates, as I think I've proved I'm rubbish at them. I have an incredibly short attention span, so chapters seem to get written in snippets and then I'll get distracted... =S Rest assured though, I'm not going to forget this fic and I will finish it - it might just take a while =/**

**Dinny  
xxxx**


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